Denham v. State

966 So. 2d 894, 2007 WL 2993925
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedOctober 16, 2007
Docket2006-KA-00725-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 966 So. 2d 894 (Denham v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Denham v. State, 966 So. 2d 894, 2007 WL 2993925 (Mich. Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

966 So.2d 894 (2007)

Patrick Douglas DENHAM, Appellant
v.
STATE of Mississippi, Appellee.

No. 2006-KA-00725-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

October 16, 2007.

*895 Leslie S. Lee, attorney for appellant.

Office of the Attorney General by Ladonna C. Holland, attorney for appellee.

Before KING, C.J., GRIFFIS and BARNES, JJ.

GRIFFIS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. On November 17, 2005, Patrick Douglas Denham was convicted in the Circuit Court of Forrest County of burglary of a dwelling. On appeal, he argues that the trial court erred when it: (1) failed to exclude evidence of fingerprint comparison and results, (2) failed to exclude evidence of other crimes, (3) allowed an eyewitness to make an in-court identification, and (4) refused a jury instruction on inconsistent testimony. We find no error and affirm.

FACTS

¶ 2. On March 3, 2005, Nelson Peden went to lunch in Hattiesburg with his wife and mother-in-law, Shelia Mathis. After lunch, Peden decided to opt out of a planned shopping excursion and went to Mathis's house to take a nap.

¶ 3. When he arrived at her house, Peden started to enter the house but instead decided to smoke a cigarette outside. While smoking, he saw a man fleeing the house to a car parked in the rear of the house. The car began to drive past Peden through the yard to the street at the front of the house. As the car passed him, Peden hurried to his vehicle. Peden pursued the vehicle for about two miles. At one point during the pursuit, the other car turned around and tried to run Peden off the road. After that, Peden lost sight of the vehicle and returned back to Mathis's house. At some point during the chase, Peden called his wife and told her to call 911 because her mother's house had been burglarized.

¶ 4. Upon returning, Peden gave an initial statement to Hattiesburg Police Officer Robert Teck. Within two hours, Peden arrived at the police station where he was asked to identify the man in the car from a *896 five person photo lineup. He positively identified Denham as the man in the car. While at the station, he also gave Detective Wilson a written statement.

¶ 5. Meanwhile, Investigator Denise Ruple, a crime scene investigator for the Hattiesburg Police Department, was called to Mathis's house to process the crime scene. During the course of her duties, she dusted the house for fingerprints. She found several fingerprints, including prints just inside the utility room window. The prints Ruple found were processed by the Mississippi Crime Laboratory. Paul Wilkerson, an expert fingerprint examiner, testified at trial and identified the print from inside the utility room window as belonging to Denham.

¶ 6. On November 16, 2005, the jury convicted Denham of burglary of a dwelling. He was sentenced as an habitual offender to serve twenty-five years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Aggrieved by the conviction, Denham appeals and raises the following issues.

ANALYSIS

I. Whether the trial court erred when it failed to exclude evidence of fingerprint comparison and results.

¶ 7. Denham claims the trial court erred in denying his motion in limine to exclude evidence of fingerprint comparison and their results. On November 15, 2005, the day before the trial, Denham's counsel filed a motion to prohibit the introduction of any evidence of the fingerprint comparisons done in this case. Denham argued that the State only produced one examiner, Paul Wilkerson, when, according to the guidelines set forth in the Scientific Working Group on Friction Ridge Analysis, Study and Testing (SWGFAST), the testimony of two examiners is necessary for a valid identification. Hence, Denham claims that the State's failure to produce the other examiner, Jamie Bush, violated Denham's Sixth Amendment right to confrontation. Prior to trial on November 16, the trial judge allowed argument on the motion and then denied the motion. The judge ruled that the failure to have both examiners present was a matter for cross-examination.

¶ 8. The standard of review for the admission or suppression of evidence is abuse of discretion. Haggerty v. Foster, 838 So.2d 948(¶ 25) (Miss.2002). The admission of expert testimony is within the sound discretion of the trial judge. Puckett v. State, 737 So.2d 322(¶ 57) (Miss. 1999). However, the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Article Three, sections 14 and 26 of the Mississippi Constitution provide the accused with the right to confront those who testify against him. Denham claims the trial judge committed reversible error for admitting the testimony of Wilkerson and not requiring the State to also offer the testimony of Jamie Bush.

¶ 9. At trial, Ruple testified that she dusted a window for fingerprints which she believed to be the burglar's point of entry. She transferred the prints onto a fingerprint card which was delivered to the Mississippi Crime Lab. Separately, Detective Jeff Byrd took Denham's palm prints and fingerprints, which were also sent to the crime lab to be compared to the fingerprints found at the crime scene.

¶ 10. Paul Wilkerson, a latent fingerprint examiner at the Mississippi Crime Lab, was tendered as an expert in fingerprint identification with no objection. Wilkerson was asked to describe the procedure that the crime lab followed when prints were received. After he described the procedure, the following exchange occurred:

*897 Q. The procedure that you just described, is that generally accepted in the realm of the scientific community, being forensic fingerprint lift of identification?
A. Yes, it is. That's used in just about every scientific endeavor is those steps, whether it be forensics or not.
Q. Well, in this case was there in fact a second examiner? I think you indicated earlier that usually there are two guys that's going to look at the same thing. Did that happen in this case?
A. Yes, it did. Actually, I was the verifier in this case but Jamie Bush did the initial examinations, and I did the verification.
Q. We don't know who Jamie Bush is. Is he also someone employed by the Mississippi Crime Laboratory in that department?
A. Yes. Actually, he's my boss. He's the section chief for the latent print section. He is a certified latent print examiner. He's at the Mississippi Crime Laboratory in Meridian.

Thereafter, Wilkerson testified that he reviewed Jamie Bush's report and compared the fingerprints found at the crime scene with Denham's known fingerprints. Wilkerson then offered this conclusion:

Q. Based on your examination of the known print card and the latent lift from the inside window of the utility room, which one of those three conclusions did you reach, sir?
A. L1, which was the inside of the window, was made by the left middle fingerprint of Patrick Denham to the exclusion of everybody else in the world.

¶ 11. Denham argues that he had a constitutional right to cross-examine the other expert who identified his print. Denham claims that Bush's opinion was clearly testimonial under Crawford v. Washington, 541 U.S. 36, 68, 124 S.Ct. 1354, 158 L.Ed.2d 177 (2004). Hence, Denham urges this Court to grant him a new trial so that he may properly confront all the witnesses against him. Bell v. State, 928 So.2d 951, 960-61 (¶¶ 36-38) (Miss.Ct.App.2005).

¶ 12.

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Bluebook (online)
966 So. 2d 894, 2007 WL 2993925, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/denham-v-state-missctapp-2007.